A wireless personal communication system (PCS) provides a variety of services including telephony, paging and networking. Typically, a PCS consists of a plurality of geographically-spaced base stations operated by a service provider and a plurality of telecommunication devices operated by customers. The customers may roam throughout the area covered by the PCS and remain capable of sending and receiving information.
Testing PCS base station equipment often requires moving test equipment through the geographic area covered by the base station. The test equipment may be capable of receiving data from the base station, transmitting information to the base station, and recording results as well as additional information such as location coordinates and time.
During testing of PCS equipment, it may be necessary to perform multiple tests at different times. For example, consider tests to compare low noise amplifiers from different manufacturers that may be used in order to increase performance in the base station receive path. A first amplifier may be installed. A test drive is then conducted while data is collected. The first amplifier may then be replaced by a second amplifier. A second test drive is then conducted while data is collected. In order to compare the operation of the two amplifiers, only data from locations with close geographic correlation should be considered. Also, factors including excessive data acquired during slow or halted movement and changes in environmental conditions must be taken into account.
What is needed is a method of correlating the data taken in one test sequence with data taken during another test sequence covering similar geographic area. Such a method should be able to reduce the effects of data taken at slow or halted movement. Such a method should also be able to compensate for differing environmental conditions when possible. The method should complete data correlation without requiring excessive computational resources.